Craigville Church 1932

Fiske Boyd made this black and white print, Craigville Church, through a reductive process, cutting away at the surface to reveal the image. I can imagine how he carefully rendered the clouds and the church in the background. There’s something about the texture that gets me thinking about the physical nature of painting. You know, the way the surface feels when you run your hand over it? I wonder what Boyd was thinking as he gouged and sliced the block to create those intricate details of nature and community life. I feel a connection to this artist, imagining him working, as I have done, in the studio, trying to work out a composition and get the tone just right. Boyd belongs to a long line of artists who have picked up tools to share their view of the world. I hope his work will be seen and re-seen by future generations of artists, so they too can join in the conversation.